Oct 21, 2010

Maine’s two major political parties have been doing a marvelous job advocating for one of the state’s gubernatorial candidates. But neither Democrats nor Republicans are making a convincing case for their own party’s nominee. The aspirant they’ve unwittingly been boosting is an independent. . . .

A governor whose primary loyalty is to Maine’s citizens rather than toward a political organization has the best chance of effectively leading the state, and an unaffiliated one would force lawmakers from both major parties into at least appearing to be reasonable; no rational Republicans or Democrats wish to be seen as impeding progress. Cutler would be in a better position than Mitchell or LePage to reach a workable consensus on a variety of issues, since as an independent he would not be beholden to either party.